This Snow Is Cold, who was a sharp winner of the Grade 1, $115,650 MBNA America Texas Challenge Championship for Quarter Horses last Saturday night at Sam Houston, will be considered for the Grade 2 Sam Houston Classic on Sept. 1, said her trainer, Melinda Garcia.
Garcia said This Snow Is Cold's main objective this fall is the Grade 1, $300,000 MBNA America Challenge Championships at Lone Star Park on Nov. 11.
Classy Cade had done little wrong in his first nine Thoroughbred starts, finishing first or second in each. Of course, all that work came against claimers, save for a try here two years ago against Quarter Horse stakes foes in which he was a nonthreatening last of seven.
That one hiccup aside, trainer Thomas Crowley and owner Carolyn Crowley obviously liked what they saw when they claimed the 5-year-old gelding here June 19 off a big win over $5,500 Arizona-bred claimers. They liked it so much they moved him up to take on 10 others in Tuesday's $15,000 Yavapai Downs Handicap.
Three finalists in the Grade 1, $1.1 million Ed Burke Million - Tac It Like A Man, The One I Am, and Ten Oclock Scholar - top the trials to the Grade 1, $400,000-estimated Governor's Cup Futurity for California-breds on Friday night at Los Alamitos.
Tac It Like a Man is still a maiden, but that could easily change when he starts from the inside post position in the fourth of nine 350-yard trials. He was third to Ed Burke Million fastest-qualifier Blues Girl Too in their trial and fourth in the Ed Burke Million.
NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - High Cotton will be shooting for his third straight stakes win when he heads a field of six in Saturday's 72nd running of the Grade 2, $350,000 Ohio Derby. Entries were taken for the 1 1/8-mile Derby on Wednesday morning at Thistledown.
High Cotton, trained by Todd Pletcher, drew the outside post. The others in the field, in post-position order, are Sayhellotolarry, Flashy Bull, Tri Uimet, Sacred Light, and Deputy Glitters.
A pair of mares from Todd Pletcher's barn and a three-horse entry for Maryland-based trainer Dickie Small account for half the 10 horse field for Sunday's Delaware Handicap.
The $1 million Delaware Handicap, at 1 1/4 miles on the main track, highlights a 12-race card that includes three other stakes. The race will go as race 11, scheduled for 5:44 p.m.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Jockey Eibar Coa had ridden horses against Commentator several times last year and thought him to be a very aggressive horse. So Coa was pleasantly surprised when a most relaxed Commentator took him on a successful 6 1/2-furlong jaunt around Belmont Park's main track Wednesday afternoon.
Woodbine canceled its eight-race Wednesday evening card because of poor conditions on the inner dirt track as a result of heavy rain that settled into the Toronto area Wednesday morning and early afternoon.
Woodbine began racing on the seven-furlong inner dirt track, which is normally used for harness racing, last weekend. The former main track is currently being converted into a synthetic Polytrack surface, scheduled to be completed later this summer.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - It didn't take trainer Terry Jordan very long to come up with another good 3-year-old to replace Halo Steven.
Following Halo Steven's win in the Alberta Derby, Jordan had a falling out with the gelding's owners, Marta Racing Ventures, and Marta moved Halo Steven to trainer Barb Heads. But Jordan's main client, Bob Cheema, recently purchased Chile's Quest, and he figures to be a major factor in the local 3-year-old division. Chile Quest has been entered in the $75,000 Burnaby Breeders' Cup on Saturday.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Sharp Humor, the Florida Derby runner-up who suffered a knee injury when finishing 19th in the Kentucky Derby, recently returned to training at Churchill Downs after undergoing what trainer Dale Romans termed a successful surgery and rehabilitation.
"He's been back about five days," Romans said Wednesday morning at Churchill. "We're just getting going with him. He's jogging a couple of miles in the morning. He's doing good."
MIAMI - Lost in the Fog is the marquee name on Saturday's Summit of Speed program and will be the heavy favorite to win the $500,000 Smile Sprint Handicap. But had the reigning Eclipse Award-winning sprinter not run well in his previous start - the June 3 Aristides Breeders' Cup Handicap at Churchill Downs - his racing career might be over, admitted his trainer, Greg Gilchrist.
